Tag Archives: Atty Josephus Jimenez

The whole nation is wondering. Which of these two shenanigans is more reprehensible, the supposedly worsening sexual assaults against our female OFWs?Or the alleged ten billion plunder of congressional pork barrel. The answer would, of course, depend on our values as a people. Is money more important than the honor and dignity of our women? Why was Cardinal Tagle on the verge of tears, while denouncing the pork barrel controversy, albeit in his characteristically diplomatic sense of outrage against the rascals, while millions are starving in hunger and poverty? Why was there no bishop or religious leader expressing anger against sexual predators masquerading as diplomats? Whatever it is, we strongly believe that both are grave assaults against our sense of rectitude and justice. But I hate the sexual predators more.

My countrymen, the state of the nation is both the best and the worst. The economy is in good shape but the people are suffering. The upward trend of economic growth is unprecedented. But this growth is not inclusive. Only the taipans, the moguls and the oligarchs are enjoying the fruits of economic development. The poor have no food, no decent homes, no hope for better days. The business sectors continue to reap the fruits of the positive financial development but the streets are full of beggars. Millions wallow in abject poverty, people are suffering in hunger and are existing in dirty, unhealthy squatter colonies. The large majority of our people have no hopes for a better tomorrow.

We expect the President, in his SONA (State of the Nation Address), to tell the nation and the whole world about the amazing growth of the Philippine economy, supposedly the highest in Asia, beating China and Japan and leaving behind such ASEAN neighbors Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Brunei and Vietnam. He will most probably talk about the alleged renewed confidence by foreign investors and the brisk trading in our stock market. He is expected to talk about more and more investments coming in, of the so-called stability of our currency and the balance of payment that resulted from financial and economic fundamentals being laid out and well-established. He may even commend his economic team for a job well done. But is this all there is to it? Is this the whole truth?

Now that the Philippine economy is at its best, after so many decades of economic stagnation, this is the best time to stop being the number one supplier of maids in the whole world. And if the government is really sincere in its declared policy to protect our women workers, there should be a total ban against deployment of domestic helpers to any country. This ban should be unconditional, immediate and total. The DOLE, in coordination, with other government agencies, and with the private sector, must be able to create enough jobs and enterprises that can replace overseas employment, as the preferred source of income for unskilled female workers. Maid deployment is a business that makes multi-millionaires of recruiters while our poor women are being jailed, raped or killed abroad. We have to stop this modern slave trade immediately.

The first mission of a true leader is to search, jointly with the people, for A COMMON VISION, a nation’s or an organization’s common aspiration, one that embodies the dreams, the desired situation, the long-range goals of the people. The leader must be able to articulate in few and simple words what the people wish fervently in their hearts and minds. He must not impose on the people what he personally wants. Rather, he must guide them in expressing their own genuine definition of the future that they choose to create for themselves and for their posterity. Moses was such a leader.

The second mission of a leader is to UNITE THE PEOPLE and in the pursuit of the common vision. This vision must be taught by him and his trusted co-teachers to all the people. The common vision should transcend all barriers, break all boundaries of social and economic status and political colors and ideological leanings. Uniting the people means that the leader must be able to create a unifying message of hope, a reassuring atmosphere, where the strong shall not oppress the weak, and the weak shall not rebel against the strong. Jesus Christ was such a leader.

Despite the tremendous advantages being enjoyed by employers, despite being defended by giant law firms that bill them in millions, and notwithstanding the fact that their HR executives and managers are topnotch and well-paid, companies are still losing their cases before the labor tribunals and courts. They were served adverse decisions and writ of executions that direct them to pay millions to workers. I have a favorite example involving a global company, manufacturing and selling consumer goods and represented by a very big and influential law firm, that has produced many top officials in government. This company lost a multi-million case to poor contractual workers who were represented only by a low profile lady lawyer, who used to be my law student. The question is why.

Of course, the rich are spending Christmas in great style and perhaps with a big bang, with expensive gifts and luxurious parties. They travel abroad and buy branded jewelries, perfumes and luxury items and throw parties left and right. They send gifts to the powerful and the wealthy people in government and in high society, to judges, prosecutors and the police. They’d prepare red envelops with cash, in crisp thousand peso bills or five hundreds, for godchildren who shall line up to kiss their perfumed hands. They have giant Christmas trees and multi-colored lanterns that consume a lot of electricity. The rich can afford all these and more.

Christmas is just a few days from today. But the President has declared a state of national calamity for the whole nation. Not just in Compostela Valley or just for Davao Oriental, not just for Mindanao or for the whole Visayas but for the entire country. All these notwithstanding, there is no calamity, no disaster, neither hurricane, nor flood, not any rage or fury of nature can ever stop us, Filipinos, from celebrating Christmas. We will always find a way amidst all sorrows, all pains and all poverty. The genuine Christians always have some hopes in their hearts, even in these trying times. We manage to bury our dead, coffin or no coffin, mourn for the victims of fortuitous events, and then stand up and move on, to welcome the birth of the Messiah.

How easy it is for employers to say that an employee should render unto his work what rightfully pertains to his job, and to his church what properly belongs to his religion. That dictum is, of course, easier said than done. But down there in the offices or in the factories, where “the rubber hits the road”, so to say, it is quite difficult to keep a just and legal balance between the demands of one’s job, on the one hand, and the often immutable articles of faith of one’s church, on the other hand. Where do we draw the thin line that pulls one to one direction as an employee, and to the opposite pole as a member of a religious sect?

It is not only in politics but also in the workplace that family dynasties do rule in our country and anywhere in Asia and the world. Business corporations that are owned and managed by family members present an interesting area of study and inquiry in human resource management and labor relations. Based on empirical data and anecdotal evidence gathered by this writer in various conglomerates and group of companies that are owned and controlled by families, there are significant patterns of leadership and management styles that do affect human behavior in business organizations.

Human resource managers, personnel directors and other HR practitioners, as well as labor leaders and DOLE administrators and their staff, may be interested to know why workers are finding it more difficult to cope with work and management pressures that are

One of the most perplexing phenomena confronting our employees, including OFWs today, and perhaps at all times, is the sad reality that their incomes, no matter how much, are never enough. Whether that employee is a top ranking corporate executive or a lowly minimum earner, the endemic problem that cuts across salary levels, and breaks borders of ranks, status and positions, is that salaries are never sufficient. Expenses always exceed incomes. Whether he is employed in the business world or in the government bureaucracy, every employee always faces the perennial problem of budget deficit and mounting debts. What is the cause of all these?

Most wage-earners, regardless of ranks and positions, have to grapple with the recurrent challenge of insufficient income. No matter how much an employee earns, the payables always exceed the

Business executives and managers are also employees. When they are illegally dismissed or are subjected to unfair labor practices or denied of their basic rights, they can seek redress before the labor tribunals. Whilst labor laws are generally designed to protect the most vulnerable sectors of the working class, that is the rank-and-file, the casual workers, the project employees, the contractuals, and the other ‘’children of the lesser gods’’, it does not follow that managerial employees and executives are without rights arising from labor laws. This legal truism has been demonstrated time and time again, in an array of labor jurisprudence. Many of the Supreme Court rulings along this line have been promulgated just a few months ago.

Source: DIRECT FROM THE LABOR FRONT By Atty Josephus Jimenez
As the political tempest is currently heating up, the work environment should brace up for possible problems that may arise from some employees’ exercise of their political rights to vote and to be voted upon, while at the same time continuing to work as personnel of their respective employers. For instance, if a company manager, supervisor or rank-and-file employee decides to run for public office, can he be compelled to resign by his employer? Can he insist to continue working with his employer while also serving as a public official? These and many related issues must now be addressed proactively by both labor and management. And if they cannot agree, a policy guideline from the DOLE may be very useful, to avoid unnecessary suits and labor disputes.

While the leaders of Asia Pacific nations have wrapped their meeting in Vladivostok, Russia, the people managers in our country held its 49th National Conference here in Cebu. The more than two thousand personnel managers all over the Philippines have just adjourned last night its annual convention at the Waterfront Hotel in Lahug, after a three-day conference on the theme: “Revolutionizing People Management in the Philippines”. Globally recognized experts on leading and managing people, and famous inspirational speakers from all over the world graced the occasion, coming from Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific. The highlight of the conference was the much-awaited proclamation of the personnel managers’ choice of the Most Outstanding Employer of the Year Award of PMAP (People Management Association of the Philippines).

Not only in the scriptures but also in Philippine labor laws, that this dictum appears overriding: To whom much is given, much is expected. In our labor statutes and jurisprudence, employers are called upon to exercise utmost diligence, and even solicitousness in making sure that the rights of their workers are respected, their human dignity cared for and the exacting standards of labor regulations are complied with. The State is mandated to afford full protection to labor especially because employers have all the power, resources and knowledge. Thus, the law mandates that all doubts shall be resolved in favor of labor and that, in most labor disputes, the employers bear the burden of proof.